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Web-wise, all
the buzz is over Paula
At
IdolOnFox.com,
message boards are a-sizzle
By Diego Vasquez
Should “American Idol” judge
Paula Abdul stay or go?
Stay, say most rabid "Idol" fans. We know
this from the message boards on IdolOnFox.com, where the
slightest bit of "Idol" news is dissected with more
enthusiasm than a frog in a junior high biology class.
Traffic to IdolOnFox.com was already way up this year,
some weeks more than doubling year-ago traffic, and as you would
expect it surged with rumors that former "Idol" contestant
Corey Clark was about to go public with claims that he had an affair
with Abdul.
During the week ended April 24, just as the
scandal broke, IdolOnFox.com attracted 1.23 million unique
visitors, according to comScore Networks, up 79 percent versus the
same week a year earlier.
Clark's claims, which aired last week on an ABC sweeps
special, have also led to some of the juiciest posts of the year
IdolOnFox.com.
So it must be teenage girls rushing to render judgment on
Paula, right?
Wrong. Try soccer moms. Females 35-44 made up the
largest group of visitors to the site in March, the latest month for
which comScore has data, accounting for nearly 20 percent of the
site’s 5.1 million unique visitors. The next largest group, at
14.5 percent, were--can you guess?-- males 35-44.
Message-board contributors hold forth with varying degrees of
passion regarding the sins of Abdul. Writes one:
“I confess, there are times when I find her a little
annoying because she always has to be so nice or whatever, but I
don't think that she has done anything to warrant her being removed
from the show.”
Most think Abdul should stay, regardless of whether
they believe Clark’s claims, but not all.
“If [Abdul] wants to gang-bang a bunch of young dudes
that is perfectly her right, but she should never, ever, get
involved with anyone on the show, and absolutely no
contestants," writes another.
"This example is just one of many where she lacks good
judgment and probably has an agent, or personal assistant with SFB's
allowing her to embark on a situation that will surely end her
tenure on ‘AI.’”
Writes yet another: “Celebrities are NOT who we think they
are. It is so funny that people believe what they see on TV. People
put on fronts as soon as the camera is on. People generally put on
their BEST FRONT for the camera. Yes, Paula is cute, even beautiful,
very talented... but how does that make one KNOW her??”
And if Abdul should get the boot, which seems unlikely, who
should get the job?
Try Cyndi Lauper, Gloria Estefan or Ashlee Simpson, as
suggested by some fans.
And here's an interesting idea, a whole new and entirely
sexier panel of judges.
“I don't believe Paula should be replaced.
However if she should be replaced, then they should replace all 3
judges. So here's my call... Madonna, Bill Clinton, and Ron Jeremy.”
Jeremy is a former porn star, for the many Media Life readers who
have never heard of him.
Elsewhere on the internet, Microsoft, Yahoo, Time
Warner, Google and eBay were the top five parent companies during
the week ended May 1, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.
Vonage, Dell, LowerMyBills.com, Bell South and Florists’
Transworld Delivery were the week’s top five advertisers.
For the second straight week average usage was steady
at 16 sessions per person, and domains visited per person were even
too at 36. PC time per person fell 5.45 percent to just over 15
hours and 45 minutes.
|
Top 25
parent companies
Week Ended May 1 |
|
# |
Parent |
Unique
Audience (000) |
Reach % |
Time
spent per person (hh:mm:ss) |
|
1 |
Microsoft |
74,915 |
60.3 |
0:42:52 |
|
2 |
Yahoo! |
64,823 |
52.1 |
1:04:42 |
|
3 |
Time Warner |
64,659 |
52.0 |
1:54:58 |
|
4 |
Google |
48,339 |
38.9 |
0:16:12 |
|
5 |
eBay |
28,333 |
22.8 |
0:58:14 |
|
6 |
United States Government |
25,857 |
20.8 |
0:15:39 |
|
7 |
InterActiveCorp |
15,997 |
12.9 |
0:13:43 |
|
8 |
Amazon |
15,727 |
12.7 |
0:13:50 |
|
9 |
RealNetworks |
14,639 |
11.8 |
0:23:41 |
|
10 |
Landmark Communications |
14,390 |
11.6 |
0:13:45 |
|
11 |
Walt Disney Internet
Group |
13,795 |
11.1 |
0:19:38 |
|
12 |
Ask Jeeves |
13,591 |
10.9 |
0:15:30 |
|
13 |
United Online |
12,971 |
10.4 |
0:35:19 |
|
14 |
New York Times Company |
12,776 |
10.3 |
0:11:59 |
|
15 |
Viacom International |
12,664 |
10.2 |
0:15:47 |
|
16 |
CNET Networks |
11,266 |
9.1 |
0:07:54 |
|
17 |
Apple Computer |
10,565 |
8.5 |
0:22:31 |
|
18 |
Verizon Communications |
10,134 |
8.2 |
0:13:22 |
|
19 |
Gannett |
8,711 |
7.0 |
0:11:32 |
|
20 |
SBC Communications |
8,376 |
6.7 |
0:12:02 |
|
21 |
Cendant |
8,248 |
6.6 |
0:09:33 |
|
22 |
Network Associates |
8,067 |
6.5 |
0:21:14 |
|
23 |
Daum Communications |
8,052 |
6.5 |
0:04:19 |
|
24 |
News Corp. Online |
8,022 |
6.5 |
0:13:34 |
|
25 |
AWS Convergence
Technologies |
7,889 |
6.3 |
0:12:28 |
|
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
|
Top 25
brands
Week Ended May 1 |
|
|
Parent |
Unique
Audience (000) |
Reach % |
Time
spent per person (hh:mm:ss) |
|
1 |
Yahoo! |
64,322 |
51.7 |
1:04:58 |
|
2 |
MSN |
58,169 |
46.8 |
0:38:20 |
|
3 |
Microsoft |
55,480 |
44.6 |
0:17:33 |
|
4 |
Google |
47,297 |
38.0 |
0:15:47 |
|
5 |
AOL |
47,226 |
38.0 |
2:23:53 |
|
6 |
eBay |
26,546 |
21.4 |
0:58:17 |
|
7 |
Real |
14,368 |
11.6 |
0:22:21 |
|
8 |
Weather Channel |
14,147 |
11.4 |
0:13:47 |
|
9 |
MapQuest |
13,768 |
11.1 |
0:07:42 |
|
10 |
Amazon |
12,870 |
10.4 |
0:13:43 |
|
11 |
Apple |
10,565 |
8.5 |
0:22:31 |
|
12 |
CNN |
9,403 |
7.6 |
0:21:47 |
|
13 |
Netscape |
8,967 |
7.2 |
0:17:16 |
|
14 |
Lycos Network |
8,042 |
6.5 |
0:04:19 |
|
15 |
McAfee |
7,777 |
6.3 |
0:21:44 |
|
16 |
WeatherBug |
7,751 |
6.2 |
0:12:40 |
|
17 |
Paypal |
7,736 |
6.2 |
0:12:53 |
|
18 |
About.com |
7,717 |
6.2 |
0:03:15 |
|
19 |
Dell |
7,139 |
5.7 |
0:08:24 |
|
20 |
Bank of America |
6,568 |
5.3 |
0:29:10 |
|
21 |
Expedia |
6,442 |
5.2 |
0:08:57 |
|
22 |
Comcast |
6,324 |
5.1 |
0:23:49 |
|
23 |
EarthLink |
6,130 |
4.9 |
0:37:02 |
|
24 |
CNET |
5,621 |
4.5 |
0:05:06 |
|
25 |
Gorilla Nation Media |
5,296 |
4.3 |
0:06:10 |
|
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
|
Top 25
advertisers
(excludes house ads)
Week Ended May 1 |
|
# |
Company |
Impressions
(000) |
|
1 |
Vonage Holdings Corp |
1,007,625 |
|
2 |
Dell Computer
Corporation |
893,584 |
|
3 |
LowerMyBills.com, Inc. |
798,005 |
|
4 |
BellSouth Corporation |
472,174 |
|
5 |
Florists' Transworld
Delivery |
418,214 |
|
6 |
Roll International
Corporation |
415,442 |
|
7 |
SBC Communications, Inc. |
397,667 |
|
8 |
InterActiveCorp |
386,330 |
|
9 |
Apollo Group, Inc. |
381,231 |
|
10 |
Scottrade, Inc. |
337,452 |
|
11 |
United Online, Inc. |
334,138 |
|
12 |
Netflix, Inc. |
333,780 |
|
13 |
Viacom Inc |
326,275 |
|
14 |
Ameritrade Holding
Corporation |
298,849 |
|
15 |
Monster Worldwide, Inc. |
289,816 |
|
16 |
Verizon Communications,
Inc. |
259,292 |
|
17 |
Orbitz |
248,641 |
|
18 |
NexTag.com |
242,582 |
|
19 |
Primus
Telecommunications |
239,522 |
|
20 |
The Walt Disney
Corporation |
199,127 |
|
21 |
E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corp. |
174,552 |
|
22 |
International Academy of
Design & Technology - Tampa |
172,255 |
|
23 |
TD Bank Financial Group |
167,386 |
|
24 |
1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. |
167,042 |
|
25 |
YourSmartRewards |
161,075 |
|
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings
AdRelevance |
|
Top 25
advertising sites
(excludes house ads)
Week Ended May 1 |
|
|
Company |
Impressions
(000) |
|
1 |
Yahoo! |
5,024,965 |
|
2 |
MSN |
2,880,850 |
|
3 |
myspace |
1,160,532 |
|
4 |
CNN |
621,790 |
|
5 |
FOXNEWS.COM |
531,543 |
|
6 |
eBay |
504,305 |
|
7 |
Juno |
490,739 |
|
8 |
AOL.com |
445,365 |
|
9 |
NetZero |
411,049 |
|
10 |
iWon |
407,470 |
|
11 |
The Weather Channel |
387,390 |
|
12 |
New York Times |
383,207 |
|
13 |
MSNBC |
313,192 |
|
14 |
ESPN.com |
296,076 |
|
15 |
Excite |
295,994 |
|
16 |
The Weather Underground |
220,179 |
|
17 |
Classmates |
173,466 |
|
18 |
EarthLink |
167,749 |
|
19 |
About.com |
165,369 |
|
20 |
Netscape |
161,286 |
|
21 |
Pogo |
157,908 |
|
22 |
Realtor.com |
157,688 |
|
23 |
Drudge Report |
137,623 |
|
24 |
Webshots |
134,582 |
|
25 |
IMDb |
128,823 |
|
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings
AdRelevance |
|
Average
use
Week Ended May 1 |
|
|
|
Current
Week |
Last Week |
% Change |
|
|
Sessions/Visits per
Person |
16 |
16 |
0 |
|
|
Domains Visited per
Person |
36 |
36 |
0 |
|
|
PC Time per Person |
15:45:47 |
14:56:55 |
5.45 |
|
|
Active Digital Media
Universe |
124,334,473 |
123,559,802 |
0.63 |
|
|
Current Digital Media
Universe Estimate |
205,217,822 |
205,252,111 |
-0.02 |
|
Source: Nielsen//Net
Ratings AdRelevance |
|
May 10, 2005
©
2005
Media Life
- Diego Vasquez is a staff writer for
Media Life.
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